


Deep in the Glowing Sea

by wilddragonflying



Series: Fallout Fic [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Gen, moving this shit from tumblr just cause
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 00:58:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17478260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wilddragonflying/pseuds/wilddragonflying
Summary: Came up with another Fallout OC; meet Meghan!





	Deep in the Glowing Sea

Standing on the edge of the Glowing Sea, Kaili frowns at her Pip-Boy, ignoring the soft clicking of the Geiger Counter as she studies the map. “Look pretty thoughtful there,” Nick comments, dusting his hands off from where he’d been gathering some herbs. He carefully stores them in his pouch before moving closer. “What’re you looking at?”

Kaili nods south-west. “I know we’ve already been out there to talk to Virgil, but… A friend of mine worked in a lab close to the crater. I just, I’m wondering if there’s anything left.”

”It’s probably buried,” Nick muses, and Kaili rolls her eyes.

”I know. But I’ve got several fusion cores, and my armor’s right here, and  _you’re_  with me, so you don’t have to worry about the rads,” she argues. “I just want to go see.”

Nick grins at her, amusement clear in his eyes. “Well then, let’s go. Preston will let you know through Radio Freedom if you’re needed, and Gage and Hancock can get in touch with you with the Nuka-World radio.”

Kaili nods then, course set, and turns to step into her power armor with determination and nerves fighting for dominance in her gut. Nick’s probably right; odds are, there’s nothing left of that lab. But now that Kaili’s thought about it, she has to know.

It’s an arduous trek through the Glowing Sea, and not for the first time Kaili grumbles - in between fights with radscorpions, bloodbugs, and the occasional deathclaw - about how  _nobody_  in the Wasteland apparently decided that working vehicles were a good idea. Eventually, however, they reach where the lab should have been, and find only a mound of dirt. Neither of them say anything, the silence between them filled with the sound of a distant radstorm and the click of the geiger counter in Kaili’s Power Armor. Kaili stares at the mound, grateful that the Power Armor shields her expression from Nick; she’s not sure what she’s feeling, resignation perhaps, but she doesn’t want him to see it, not yet.

”Huh.”

Kaili glances at Nick. “What?”

”Look up there,” he says, raising a hand to point at where -

”Huh. Now what are still-working cameras doing up here?” Sure enough, there’s a blinking red dot on the side of the camera Nick’s spotted, nestled in a small alcove in the dirt covering the rest of the building. It’s aimed at them, and whether or not there’s anyone in the building watching, it’s a sign that there’s  _something_  down there.

”Bet there’s an access tunnel somewhere,” Nick says thoughtfully. “I’ll go right, you go left?”

Hefting her rifle, Kaili nods. “Sounds like a plan.”

They end up finding the tunnel at the same time; it’s only a small thing that leads to a locked door, but it’s on the opposite side of the building from the one they’d approached, and Nick makes quick work of the lock, gaining them access.

The inside is booby-trapped out the wazoo. There’s bathroom scales, grenade chandeliers, tension triggers, trip wires, flamer traps, fragmentation mines, plasma mines, basically every kind of explosive or trap that Kaili’s encountered, it’s here in this building. It’s slow going disarming as many as they can, triggering the ones they can’t from a safe distance, but slowly but surely they work their way down. “This place is amazingly well-preserved,” Kaili observes, studying a chart on a wall that’s barely yellowed with age.

”Almost as well-preserved as you,” Nick teases, and Kaili gives him a shove, mindful of the extra strength the armor gives her.

”Very funny, tin can.”

Eventually, they make their way to the third floor, having systematically cleared the first two, and when they emerge from the stairwell - the elevator lights had been on, indicating they had power, but had apparently been disabled - they’re greeted by a sight that neither of them had really expected, despite the evidence.

There’s a ghoul waiting for them, hunting rifle in hand and pointed directly at Nick’s face. “Who are you?” she demands without preamble, and Kaili frowns behind the helmet, trying to place the voice.

”My name is Nick,” the synth answers, holstering his pistol and holding his hands up in the universal symbol of ‘I come in peace’ that doesn’t seem to do a whole lot to reassure the ghoul.

”And your companion? Step out of the armor,” she orders, gaze flicking to Kaili, who carefully bends down to lay her rifle on the ground before complying; this deep below ground, in the shelter of the building, the rads are reduced enough that Kaili feels comfortable leaving for a few minutes. Kaili mimics Nick’s position, but the last thing she’s expecting when she steps around the armor and the ghoul gets her first good look at Kaili is what she gets: “ _Fuck_ ing hell, what the fuck?”

Kaili feels her eyebrows raise. “I beg your pardon?”

”Jesus shit, it is you. Couple new scars, but still.” Now the rifle gets tossed aside as the ghoul strides up to Kaili, stopping an arm’s length away. “Christ, look at you. The fuck happened, did you get stuck in a fridge somewhere?”

Kaili can’t help the way she chokes on a laugh, remembering the kid she had actually rescued from a fridge, but she shakes her head. “No, I was - cryogenically frozen. Iced.”

The ghoul’s eyes narrow, then she snaps her fingers. “That Vault they built up by your place,” she concludes, nodding when Kaili does. “Well hell, you’re looking damn good for - what is it now? Two hundred forty-five, give or take? Hell of a lot better than I am, anyway.”

And fuck, Kaili can barely hope, but… “ _Meghan?_ ”

The ghoul smiles ruefully. “Yeah, that’s me.”

Kaili’s moving before she realizes what she’s doing, hauling Meghan in close. “Holy  _shit,_  you’re alive,” she breathes, burying her face in the crook of Meghan’s neck as her best friend does the same. “My God, I came out here just to see, but I didn’t expect - “

Meghan laughs bitterly as they pull apart. “Yeah, me either. Hell of a shock, it was. You mind introducing me to that hunk of metal over there? He don’t look like no synth I’ve ever met.”

”Oh!” Kaili grins, moving to sling an arm around Nick’s shoulders. “This is Nick Valentine, he’s a second generation synth from the Institute. Actually a prototype of the third generation, I think. He was implanted with the memories of - “

”That poor bastard whose fiance got shot,” Meghan finishes, the pieces obviously slotting into place. “Well hell, pleasure to meet you.”

Nick shakes her hand with a bemused smile while Kaili rolls her eyes. “So you’ve been here since the bombs dropped?” Nick asks.

”Yep,” Meghan answers, popping the ‘p’ just like Kaili remembers. “Me and about… oh, two dozen scientists and four dozen guards were living here around the clock, working on a project funded by some anonymous client who was rich as Midas. Building got buried in the blast, about half a dozen people died immediately, another dozen died of radiation poisoning. The rest of us turned into ghouls, but… Well, being so close to ground zero, the ones who never spent any time away with me on scavenging missions went feral fast.” Meghan’s mouth twists into a grimace. “Saw how other ghouls like them acted around normal people, learned there was no coming back after one of the doctors did a necropsy - he didn’t feel right calling it an autopsy, ‘cause the brains were so rotted the people had become nothing but animals. We all decided to put anyone who went feral for good down, and since I was the most experienced with weapons after the last security guard went feral…”

”Shit,” Kaili breathes, reaching out to lay a comforting hand on Meghan’s shoulder; the ghoul gives her a half-hearted smile.

”I led the scavenging missions,” she continued. “went north, out of what I found out people were calling the Glowing Sea. Got away from the worst of the rads fairly regularly and picked up new information, made new friends.”

”And getting away from the rads helped keep you from going feral,” Kaili finishes.

Meghan nods. “Yep, near as I can figure. I’m the last one of the scientists who survived the blast, and I’ve been alone going on… twenty years now? Something like that, I didn’t keep track,” she says, waving a hand. “But! Before Dr. Bradley died, we finalized the latest design for the project we were originally contracted for.”

Kaili blinks, but Nick beats her to replying: “You kept working on that for over a hundred and fifty years? Without being paid?”

Meghan shrugs. “We were engineers and scientists, of course we did,” she chuckles. “C’mon, lemme reboot the elevators and I’ll show you what we designed.”

* * *

 

”What… are we looking at?” Kaili asks, confused; back in her power armor, the click of the geiger counter in her ear, she eyes the flat black slabs before her. “They look a bit like panels, but…”

”Sol tiles,” Meghan announces, patting one fondly. “That’s what we built. They take energy from the sun and store it, and then we’ve got some other bits and bobs to convert it into something that can be stored in fusion cores and cells.”

”Holy shit,” Nick breathes, crouching down to examine the underside of one. “How efficient are they?”

”Well, these are.. fourth generation, I believe,” Meghan says, gesturing to the corner to her left. “Over there is the first one. These are about twice as efficient as the first one we built. Enough for a single tile, out on an average day’s weather for about ten hours to store enough energy to fill two hundred fusion cores. Not that I have two hundred fusion cores just lying around, that’s just what the numbers project.”

”Holy shit,” Nick repeats, Kaili echoing the sentiment.

”This is… It could completely change the Commonwealth.”

”I know,” Meghan says, expression twisting. “But I only have materials to make a limited number, and no idea how to find any more. And the materials are really hard to work with and move very far, and I don’t have any way of getting my truck out of the garage and to the Commonwealth.” She pauses when Kaili and Nick whirl around to stare at her. “What?”

”You have a  _working_  truck?” Nick demands.

”Of course; we kept a truck, a car, and a cycle in good condition after the bombs fell, but we could never get the parking garage cleared out well enough to even get the cycle out,” Meghan says. “Why?”

”Well, none of the trucks lying around work - “

”Ugh, I know,” Meghan groans. “I’ve taken a look at most of them; they’re too hard to cannibalize for parts, apparently, because most of them have the bits to make them go, they just don’t have an energy source, and no coolant for the fission cores. None in any filling station, either; it’s all evaporated.”

”How do you get yours to run then?” Kaili asks, curious.

”Converted it to run on fusion cores,” Meghan answers. “Well, me and one of the other scientists. Nice gal, good with her hands. Want to see it?”

”Hell yes!”

* * *

 

”He’s not the prettiest thing, Vega, but he’s nice enough,” Meghan says, opening the doors to the garage and leading the way past the defunct vehicles. “Kept him and the other car and cycle over here by the workstation, just to make it easier to work on them when we needed a distraction.” Meghan opens the driver’s door long enough to pop the hood on the shipping truck - whose trailer is in just as good a shape as the truck - to show Nick and Kaili the modifications. “He can’t sit idle for very long or the cores start overheating. Has to be moving, get air flowing over them to cool them off. But even then, he still can’t go more than about fifty miles, not that we’ve been able to see how accurate that is.”

Kaili makes an appreciative noise, turning to look at the rest of the garage as Nick takes a closer look at the insides of the truck, talking with Meghan. Kaili leaves them to it, following the road through the middle of the enormous - no surprise, considering what Meghan told them about the size of some of the parts they had shipped in; apparently their client had the garage custom built after redesigning the entire lab - parking garage, all the way to where the ground of the Glowing Sea blocks the entry way. “Hey, Meghan?” she calls back, studying the dirt in front of her.

”Yeah?” Meghan answers, footsteps echoing as she comes closer.

”How deep is this?” Kaili asks, gesturing to the blockage in front of her. “I mean, how far from the surface are we?”

”If we could dig straight up? Probably about thirty feet or so,” Meghan answers. “But the truck can only handle so steep an angle, so probably quadruple that, maybe more, if we were going to dig a tunnel. We never bothered with it, didn’t have the supplies necessary to build supports, or the equipment needed to just dig a valley.”

Kaili hums thoughtfully. “Bet if we could convince Sturges to come down here with a team of Minutemen he could clear it out,” she muses.

”He is a handy human,” Nick agrees, having followed Meghan. “Would need to find a lot of hazmat suits, though. And some good equipment.”

Kaili waves a hand. “Of course; you know neither of those are any problem, though. The storekeepers all love me.”

Nick snorts. “They love the business you bring,” he corrects, but doesn’t argue. “Percy and Myrna could probably lay their hands on some hazmat suits and tools.”

”This is great and all, but what about getting out of the Glowing Sea?” Meghan pipes up. “The terrain is rough as hell, and I don’t have a map.”

”What about the Vault 88 Pip Boys?” Nick suggests, and Kaili nods.

”There’s a couple extras, I think. Wouldn’t be too hard to get one set up with a modern map and down here for you,” she says.

Meghan considers that, then grins. “Well, if it means I might be able to test out my stuff in a more real-world situation… I’m in.”

Meghan stays behind, unwilling to leave her lab behind just yet, but with the help of Radio Freedom, Kaili is back within a few days, Sturges and several Minutemen in tow, along with their equipment. Kaili helps Meghan get her Pip Boy set up, and then leaves her to explore and play with it in favor of helping her men. She’d worn her Power Armor and had scrounged up several other fusion cores, enough to share among the older-model suits she’d collected over her two years in the Commonwealth.

With all that extra mechanical power at their disposal, it isn’t hard for Meghan and Sturges to direct Kaili and her men into the most efficient work pattern. It still takes several days, but with the shelter offered by the lower levels of the lab and the food they’d brought, combined with what Meghan had stockpiled over the years, it’s not a problem. When they’re done, Meghan tests the ramp with her other vehicle, a smaller truck. They’d elected to forego trying to build a tunnel, instead carving a valley into the Glowing Sea whose walls were supported by walls. After a few other adjustments, Meghan pronounces the ramp to her satisfaction, and fires up the shipping truck for the moment of truth. She, Kaili, and Nick are the only ones with the practical experience(in a manner of speaking in Nick’s case) of driving a vehicle, but Meghan doesn’t trust anyone else with her baby. It takes some careful maneuvering to get the truck through the rest of the garage, and then she holds her breath as they rumble from concrete to dirt, praying that the packed ground holds the vehicle’s weight.

Miraculously, it does - and for the first time in over two hundred years, Meghan sees daylight through the windshield of a vehicle. “I’ll be damned,” she breathes, grinning. “It worked.”

”It did,” Kaili confirms, coming up to the window that had long ago been broken out. “Now we just need to find a suitable route out of here.”

Meghan gestures behind herself. “Well, we packed this with food and equipment, and so long as we mark the route so I can retrieve more once we get out, we can just keep going; Sturges knows what to look for in the ground, now.”

Kaili nods, hefting her rifle. “I’ll let them know.”

There are several close calls, but with the mechanical muscle provided by the suits of Power Armor, the truck eventually reaches solid ground, its tires finally touching road once again. From there, the group makes its way northward to the Starlight Drive-In, where Kaili had built a large trading settlement that was quickly becoming the seat of the unofficial Commonwealth government.

When the truck finally pulls into the makeshift garage Kaili had built for it, brakes screaming in protest and engine groaning in relief as it’s finally allowed to rest, they draw quite a crowd. Meghan can hear the murmurs before she even steps out of the vehicle, and they only grow in volume when she does. Kaili is already stepping out of her power armor, hooking it up to a nearby frame as she does so before stepping forward.

”Now, I know you all have been very curious since I started building that garage,” she announces, and Meghan can’t help but smile a bit sadly at the image Kaili makes in her General uniform; she’d always been a leader, and Meghan just wishes that Nate and their other friends could have seen her like this, though preferably in better circumstances than post-nuclear apocalyptic. “A couple of weeks ago, Nick and I went into the Glowing Sea to find a building I had known about before the bombs dropped. We didn’t expect to find anything, but we did: An old friend of mine, Meghan.”

Meghan steps forward, giving a small wave when Kaili gestures to her. “I was a scientist and engineer, before the war,” she starts when Kaili doesn’t say anything, just looks at her expectantly. “Several of us were contracted to find a new means of energy; our client didn’t trust nuclear energy - rightly, as it turns out.” She waits while the snickers subside, and then continues, “We were all in the lab when the bombs dropped, and most of us survived that. The ones who survived became ghouls, but I am the last survivor. Before they died, however, we managed to fulfill our contracts and do a bit more.”

Meghan helps a Minuteman get a sol tile out of the track, helping him hold it up. “This is a sol tile - it collects energy from sunlight, and can convert it into a form that can be stored in fusion cells and cores, enabling them to be refilled until they wear out. This truck,” she says, pointing at the truck in question, “runs on fusion cores that were depleted, and refilled with solar energy. I hope to find the materials to make more of these sol tiles, so that I can rebuild more vehicles and help the Commonwealth continue to rebuild in a more meaningful way.”

”We’ve made great strides towards that end,” Kaili jumps in. “This settlement is proof of it. But if we can find the materials to build more of these tiles, we can make even greater strides.”

Meghan can tell that there’s dissent, some traders’ expressions suspicious, others downright mistrustful, but she’s faced those expressions and attitudes her entire life; this won’t be any different.


End file.
